Porres.com – Eric's Humble Place in Cyberspace

I read this very interesting post today by Steve Rubel on the organization of information in our digital age.  I love the fact that he used the term Digital Renaissance in the 21st century…the first domain I ever purchased was domain digitalrenaissance.com in 1996 and now I may finally have a way to put it to good use!  But in all sincerity I do appreciate how Steve distinguishes the curation of information rather than the aggregation of information.  For example:

Museum curators, like web users, are faced with choices. They can’t put every work of art in a museum. They acquire pieces that fit within the tone, direction and – above all – the purpose of the institution. They travel the corners of the world looking for “finds.” Then, once located, clean them up and make sure they are presentable and offer the patron a high quality experience.

Much the same, the digital realm too needs curators. Information overload makes it difficult to separate junk from art. It requires a certain finesse and expertise – a fine tuned, perhaps trained eye. Google, memetrackers such as Techmeme and social news sites like digg are not curators. They’re aggregators – and there’s a big difference.